


on that distant shore

by ninemoons42



Series: Dragon Age Inquisition - Kiriya - Original Flavor [13]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Cullen's lake, Declarations Of Love, F/M, Gift Giving, Introspection, Oaths & Vows, exchanging gifts, slightly non-canon compliant, token of affection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-23 23:27:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4896361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninemoons42/pseuds/ninemoons42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cullen takes Kiriya to a place of fond and peaceful memories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	on that distant shore

“Having fun?”

The sheer _nerve_ of her words -- and then Cullen lost that thought as he dove out of the way of another charge. Claws swiping at him, enraged growls making the trees around him shake, and there were multiple gouges in his shield.

Maker, he was grateful he’d brought the shield along, but he hadn’t been thinking he would actually use it!

Over and over again he swung his sword, but in the relatively tight spaces of the overgrown forest he wondered what exactly he was doing, trying to fend the unhappy bear off -- it had a fine grizzled pelt, true, but he was _really distracted_ right now, and the person who was supposed to be helping him was nowhere in sight -- 

“Kiriya,” he half-growled, warningly.

“Just a little more,” came the voice from _somewhere_ in the forest. Where could she be? He cursed the trees and their thick foliage and the vines underfoot that caused him to be far more wary of each step. “All right, all right, one more step back -- Cullen? _Stop right where you are._ ”

With a very angry bear crouched to the ground and eyeing him up for a meal? Void take her, he needed to run, needed to put some distance between himself and that blasted thing -- 

“I mean it!” Kiriya barked, still out of sight. “Stay there. Don’t move.”

“Not bloody likely unless you _want_ me to get mauled,” Cullen muttered.

“Oh, no, not that, never that -- just trust me,” and then -- 

There were far too many teeth in the bear’s gaping mouth -- 

A quiet rustle, just overhead.

Cullen stepped back, muttered a prayer to Andraste -- 

_Thump._

All he saw was the flash of falling and the glimpsed glint of green-tinted sunlight on a long blade -- and then the bear screamed, just once, and fell with hideous force, still several feet away.

Kiriya was crouched atop the bear’s shoulders. A polished dark blade and a silvered serrated edge. The knife was even longer than her arm -- he was used to that -- what he was not used to was the pinpoint precision of her strike, right in the back of the bear’s neck. He guessed she’d killed it instantly -- there wasn’t even enough life left in the bear to twitch, much less throw her off. 

He watched as Kiriya produced another knife from somewhere in her leathers and eyed the bear speculatively. “The pelt’s valuable,” he heard her murmur, as if mostly to herself.

“We’ve no way to cure it or dry it,” Cullen said as he crept closer.

“True. And we’re not carrying this blasted thing around with us.”

“We’ll have to leave it behind.”

“Pity,” she said as she rose to her feet and stowed her knives away -- after wiping the bloodied edge off on some nearby leaves. 

He was standing right behind her now. “Kiriya?”

“Cullen,” she said.

“You do this kind of thing often, when you’re out on your missions.”

Soft laughter. “Sometimes it’s just bears. Bears the team and I can handle. They don’t bother us that much any more. Everything else, though, that’s another story.”

He wrapped his arms around her, then, weapons and all. He could hear old pain and new scars in her flippant tones. The wildflower scent of her was now mostly subsumed beneath salt and sweat and the smell of the vines at his feet.

“I thought you were going to scold me or something,” she said, after a moment.

He shook his head against her. Felt her hands move to cover his. Fingers intertwining around the grip of his sword. “I was going to. Right now I’m just glad it’s dead and you’re all right.”

“I try my best, you know,” was her response. “Try to come back alive and breathing. The problem is that there are a lot of people out there, a lot of things, who want to collect my head.”

“I’ve no doubt you could get through all of them,” he said, kissing the back of her neck.

“Maybe.”

“I _know_ ,” he said, more firmly.

“You have such faith in me,” Kiriya said, turning around in his arms. 

Dropping his sword and shield he traced, with one careful finger, the wry lines around her eyes and mouth. “You deserve to be believed in,” he said, and kissed her, very gently. 

A bird called overhead, bright startling distant cry.

He looked up, at the distant patch of sky that was already starting to turn the bright colors of sunset, and reluctantly stepped away. “We should be going -- it’d be better to reach the lake before dark.”

“Is it still a long way?” she asked, trailing him to where they’d left their horses.

“An hour at most.”

His reward was a smile. “Lead on.”

He didn’t realize he was holding his breath until he exhaled, the first time he caught the soothing whispers of soft waves on a green shore -- the first time he saw the familiar lily-scented mist. Steady pulse, gentle, and he slid off his horse and tied it quickly to the nearest tree. 

“We’re here?” Kiriya asked once she’d joined him.

He nodded, once, and smiled. “There’s a short path and then, yes, we’re here.”

“I can hear the lake,” she whispered. “It sounds so peaceful.”

“That’s why I loved it. Whenever I thought of peace and quiet -- I’d think of this place.”

The dock creaked softly beneath his weight -- just as it had every other time he’d come to this place -- and he closed his eyes and bowed his head, and took a deep breath. “Kiriya,” he murmured, and the words began to pour out. Growing up, and getting away from his siblings’ voices.

And then he opened his eyes and looked at her. Dusklight and lake-shadow painting serenity onto her cheeks, onto the slight and peaceful curve of her lips. The damp air had caused wisps of her hair to curl softly against her cheeks, against the angle of her jaw.

He nodded, then, and reached into his breastplate. One silvery coin, worn around the edges; one iridescent blue scale, still new and scratchy against the leather of his glove.

He saw the surprise flitting across Kiriya’s face, surprise that faded into sweet affection, into soft pleasure. 

“A dragon scale,” she whispered, pressing her finger briefly to his palm. “From a Northern Hunter. I gave you this.”

“Yes,” he said, just as quietly, hoping that the lake didn’t drown him out, hoping he could get all the words out. “The last time I was here was the day I left for Templar training. My brother gave me this,” and he guided her fingers to touch the worn coin. “It just happened to be in his pocket, but he said it was for luck. Templars are not supposed to carry such things -- our faith should see us through.”

He closed the distance between them, still holding the dragon scale and the coin out on his palm. “There was a time when I had faith in something greater and better than I was -- and there was a time when that faith was torn away from me.”

“And now you have faith -- in me,” Kiriya whispered. “I -- how -- ”

“It’s incredibly easy to believe in you. You rally people. You fight when hope is lost. You reach out to those of us who are lost or needing or broken -- ”

“No.”

Cullen blinked. Though the skies had darkened he could see something determined, like a persistent light, in her eyes. “No?”

“Maybe I help the lost. Maybe I give help to those who need it. But one thing I’m sure of: I don’t minister to the broken, Cullen. No one I see is broken. Do you understand me? _No one._ I see people who don’t need to be fixed. I see people with problems -- and problems can be fixed, maybe, some of the time -- but that doesn’t mean the people with those problems are broken.”

He could feel the tears coursing down his cheeks, and he could see that she was crying, too, and he gently brushed his thumb against the corners of her eyes. “Like I said: I believe in you. And this is why.”

And then he took a deep breath. Transferred his coin into her hand. He immediately missed the familiar weight of it. “But humor me: we don’t know what you’ll face before the end. This can’t hurt.”

“Your coin -- it brought you back here -- are you sure you want me to have it?” And Kiriya sounded so small, so thoroughly astounded. 

“I do.” 

“Then -- I’ll keep it safe. Thank you, Cullen.”

“I know it’s foolish,” he whispered as he drew her near, as he touched his forehead to hers. “But I’m glad.”

“Cullen,” he heard her say, before she kissed him. Before he bent to her and let her fold him close. He turned into the soft skin just beneath her ear and just _breathed_.

“Cullen,” she said, and he felt her fingers against his cheeks. Blindly he turned, seeking them out, brushing soft kisses against the tips -- and he went, gladly, when she turned him back towards her, when their mouths met again, brushing gently and warmly.

“Kiriya,” he whispered back. “Kiriya. I love you.”

“I love you, Cullen,” she said, and then she pulled back, smiling gently. As he watched, she held the coin up between them, then tucked it carefully away into her leathers, somewhere over her heart.

He traced the blush on her cheeks, surprised yet again at the warmth of her, wondering. How had he come back here, through the Fifth Blight, through Kirkwall, through the beginnings of the Inquisition -- how had he come back here, alive, and with _her_ in his arms? Was it his place to ask? Would he receive an answer if he asked the Maker or his Bride? 

A soft touch to his cheek. He blinked, and again saw those lines around her smile. “Where were you, just now?”

Cullen shook his head and drew her close, and kissed her. Drank her soft yielding sighs in. The strength in Kiriya’s arms, pulling him in, her fingers running through his hair. He inhaled deeply of her and of the lilies blooming on the lake, and murmured against her mouth: “Yours. Only yours.”

“As I’m yours.”

**Author's Note:**

> Some inspiration taken from the song [Distant Shores](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRL762hp1zE) as covered by The Company.
> 
> Loops into themes described in the previously published fic, ["faith"](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4870335).
> 
> I am also on [tumblr](http://ninemoons42.tumblr.com/) and my Dragon Age: Inquisition blog is [here](http://ninemoons42-inquisition.tumblr.com/).


End file.
